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The Source, James Michener July 18, 2006

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , trackback

It was a very hot weekend, and sitting in the park reading a book was about my limit. I’ve recently acquired a large box of books from a friend who’s moving, on the promise that I’ll give them to Amnesty when I’ve finished them, and in it I found James Michener’s The Source.The book traces the discovery of layer upon layer of civilisation as archaeologists near Galilee dig through an ancient mound which has been inhabited since people first moved out of caves. Through cave-dweller, to Canannite, to the first Hebrews, through centuries of conquest and carrying off to slavery and exile, coming back and leaving again, right to the kibbutzim of modern Israel, the book follows the history of the area and its people.

Its a novel, not history, but it perhaps provides a little insight into why that part of the world is in such turmoil now. Its not a story that started in 1948 when the British left, or even in 70AD when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. Its not a simple story of long exile, followed by return after nearly 2000 years. It is a story of people always on the margins, never part of the mainstream of society, rarely secure in their place. Its a story of continuous, if tenuous, life in a place and of a constant longing for that place.

I don’t know. If my ancestors had been kicked out of every place they’d ever been, and then, after the worst possible experiences, had finally had the courage, or perhaps the desperation, to take a place and hold it, I might hold on pretty tight too and ignore international opinion to stay where I was and make it secure. And if my ancestors had been swept out of the ancestral homes sixty years ago, I’d probably still be trying to get them back. There’s no easy answer, and it looks increasingly like there might not even be a difficult one.

Comments»

1. cloudscome - July 22, 2006

I read this a year or so ago and found it very interesting and illuminating. Now would be a good time to read it again I think. What a tangle we get into, being humans! I am going to be reading your reviews more often!